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This has given room for a doubt, whether friends do really wish

to their friends the very highest goods, as that they may be

gods: because, in case the wish were accomplished, they would no

longer have them for friends, nor in fact would they have the

good things they had, because friends are good things. If then it

has been rightly said that a friend wishes to his friend good

things for that friend's sake, it must be understood that he is

to remain such as he now is: that is to say, he will wish the

greatest good to him of which as man he is capable: yet perhaps

not all, because each man desires good for himself most of all.